Thinking back

I went off to college in 1969 and in my part of the world, very few women were braless at that time. I knew a few girls in college who occasionally went without a bra. I started to notice many braless women in the mid 70s here. When I started being brafree, I would say about 20% of the women I knew were always without and another 10% or so were braless sometimes. Nipples and jiggling breast seemed to be no big deal. In our circle of friends (maybe 5 couples), bralessness was talked about at times, but it seemed very normal  like kidding (and sometimes the guys would call me Nips). I was not around high school or college kids much at that time, but my best friends (who always wore a bra) daughter did not ever wear a bra to the 3 years of high school (about 1977-80). I knew that because when she decided to do that, her mother told her to come and visit me about being braless all the time. The girl had very protruding nipples and I told her that she would be noticed a lot, but that she would get used to that. At her graduation party (her nipples were very visible) she thank me for my advice and told me she had not had many negative situations and that she was never going to wear one again.

I would say that through the 80s, my bralessness was not too unusual. But about the time we moved here (93), I started feeling like the only braless women in the world. Never in the 70s and 80s did anyone ever make any negative comments, but in the past 10 years I have had several women tell me how terrible I am for not wearing a bra. One even told me I was immoral. I think if I were young and not so comfortable with myself and what I am, I would be very intimidated. I am glad I was young in a time when I was excepted even though I was braless, had large breasts, and protruding nipples.